Art Song Canberra Inc. www.artsongcanberra.org SEASON OF SONG 2009 In 2009 Art Song Canberra will present six recitals of fine art song by an outstanding array of award- winning, highly-accomplished artists, many of them widely experienced on the world stage. Background Art Song Canberra is a dedicated group of volunteers and lovers of art song. It was founded as the A.C.T. Lieder Society in 1976 by a small group of devotees of art song led by Eleanor Houston OAM of Covent Garden fame. The society’s purpose is to foster and extend the love of art song. This is done mainly by: presenting high quality concerts to its members and the general public. The annual series is called the Season of Song; conducting an annual Festival of Song in which aspiring singers perform to an audience in a relatively relaxed and friendly environment and receive advice and encouragement from an acknowledged expert; providing opportunities for concert performance for dedicated and talented amateur singers. This format has met with considerable audience approval and Art Song Canberra has scheduled another such event in its Season of Song 2009; and conducting Members’ Soirées, social gatherings of members to sing and play together, taking us back to the origin of Lieder societies. Throughout its life the society has presented a series of six or seven vocal recitals each year. A great many of the society’s artists over the years have been have been highly accomplished both in Australia and internationally. Among the many artists who have performed for the society are such noted Australian singers as Eleanor Houston, Michael Martin, Sally-Anne Russell, Warwick Fyfe, Christopher Allan, Angela Giblin, Louise Page and Christina Wilson as well as Susan Burghardt from the USA and Thomas Weinhappel from Vienna. Pianists have included Andrew Greene, Phillipa Candy, Alan Hicks, Anthony Smith, Vivienne Winther, Margaret Legge-Wilkinson, Nigel Butterley, Darryl Coote and the renowned British pianist Roy Howat. Recital programs have ranged widely from such classics of the Lieder repertoire as song cycles of Schubert and Schumann to fine art song by contemporary composers such as the noted Australian Nigel Butterley. Season of Song 2009 Season of Song 2009 will begin with a recital by distinguished Canberra artists Rebecca Collins and Vivienne Winther. In May, four of Canberra's finest musicians, Louise Page, Christina Wilson, Phillipa Candy and Alan Hicks, will present duets, trios and quartets from the art song and piano repertoire. The third concert will feature a group of highly talented voice students in a varied and delightful recital, the next in a popular series of such concerts. In September, the renowned counter-tenor Tobias Cole and accompanist Andrew Greene will perform a passionate recital of German and English love songs and arias. Art Song Canberra Prizewinner Amy Corkery will perform with the distinguished accompanist David Miller AM in October. The Season will end with a recital by Rachael Duncan and Alan Hicks; Rachael has recently returned to her home town, Canberra, after ten years of great accomplishment in Europe. More extensive information is given below. Hi-res pix are available from www.artsongcanberra.org Admission to the concerts includes a complimentary program and light refreshments: Full price $25; Seniors, Friends of the National Library of Australia, Friends of Wesley Music and Musica Viva subscribers $22; Members and pensioners $18; Full-time students $10. In 2009 the seventeenth annual Festival of Song will take place. It aims to help and encourage developing singers of art song. The Festival provides an excellent opportunity to singers of all ages to sing to an audience in a friendly, non-competitive, informal setting and receive expert, encouraging comment and advice both oral and written. It is a feast of art song for participants and audience members alike. Page 2 of 7 pages Sunday 15th March FROM STAGE TO SALON 3pm, Wesley Music Centre, National Circuit, Forrest Rebecca Collins, soprano, and Vivienne Winther, piano A program of recital repertoire by great operatic composers: Puccini, Massenet, Donizetti, Gounod and others. These small-scale masterpieces make for fascinating listening, with echoes and themes from their dramatic stage works often emerging for the first time in the form of more intimate salon songs. Hear some of the most famous melodies from La Bohème in their original setting. Rebecca Collins is a winner of the National Aria Competition and has appeared in principal roles for Opera Queensland, Opera Australia and OzOpera, including Gilda in Rigoletto and Marzelline in Fidelio. She pursued further vocal studies in Germany and Austria, funded by an Australia Council grant and a Goethe Institut scholarship. She has also performed at international festivals such as the Colorado Music Festival and the AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria, in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to John Adams’ controversial opera Nixon in China. In 2005, her performance as the heroine, Jane, in Stopera’s Australian premiere production of Jane Eyre was acclaimed as stunning in reviews nationally and internationally. In 2006, Rebecca starred as Sophie in Stopera’s Australian premiere of the jazz opera Nigredo Hotel. Concert performances for Rebecca include major events for the National Gallery of Australia, National Multicultural Festival and the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival, as well as gala concert appearances for Opera Queensland. Rebecca was a soloist in Stopera’s Opera by the Lake in 2007 and 2008. Vivienne Winther is Artistic Director of Stopera and has played a leading role in the production and performance of more than twenty notable opera and concert events for the company since 1997. She is also Artistic Director of Music For Everyone, the ACT’s community music organisation, and a part-time lecturer in piano at the ANU School of Music. She was an opera repetiteur with Canberra Opera until moving to Hong Kong, where she was Chief Repetiteur for the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Graduate Opera School, assisting Opera Australia conductor Carlo Felice Cillario and the Head of Vocal Studies Margreta Elkins. Vivienne has appeared in concert for the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra International Chamber Music Festival, Sydney Schubert Society, and as a recording artist for ABC Classic FM. Vivienne has accompanied and coached singers from Opera Australia, Victorian State Opera, Beijing Central Opera and Cologne Opera. In November 2005, Vivienne was named The Canberra Times Artist of the Year for her uncompromising vision and achievement in gaining recognition for opera in the ACT. Sunday 3rd May DOUBLE TROUBLE 3pm, John Lingard Hall, Canberra Grammar Junior School, Alexander Street, Red Hill Louise Page, soprano, Christina Wilson, mezzo-soprano, Phillipa Candy and Alan Hicks, piano Come and hear what two pianists and two singers can get up to, when well-known Canberra duos Louise Page and Phillipa Candy and Christina Wilson and Alan Hicks combine to present a concert of all possible combinations. Solos, duets and quartets by composers such as Schumann, Chausson, Franck, Mendelssohn and Fauré. Louise Page is one of Australia’s most highly regarded singers, delighting audiences in opera, operetta, oratorio, cabaret, recital and broadcasts. She is a lecturer in voice at the A.N.U. School of Music. Page 3 of 7 pages Louise won the 1995 inaugural Mietta’s Song Recital Competition and the 1989 ABC Young Performer of the Year vocal final. As winner of the Robert Stolz/Apex scholarship to Vienna and as a member of the young artist program of the Vienna State Opera, she performed throughout Europe and Australia, including roles at the Vienna State Opera. Louise regularly appears with groups such as Art Song Canberra, the Royal Military College Band, Stopera, Canberra Choral Society and the Wesley Music Centre. She frequently performs in various regional music centres and for groups in Sydney and Melbourne. She has appeared as a soloist with the Sydney, Queensland, Canberra and Central Coast Symphony Orchestras and the National Capital Orchestra. She performed for the 2007 Canberra International Chamber Music Festival as Nellie Melba: Queen of Song – a show that earned her and accompanist Phillipa Candy a standing ovation and many repeat performances. Louise was named 2007 Canberra Times Artist of the Year. Phillipa Candy has Master’s degrees from Hobart and Philadelphia. She was a state final winner in the ABC Vocal and Instrumental Competition in 1982. Since 1984 she has worked as a professional accompanist, private teacher, repetiteur and coach. She was the founding pianist with the group Austral Skies which toured for Musica Viva in 1988. Phillipa worked as an accompanist and repetiteur for the Philadelphia Singers and for the studio of Robert MacFarland, an internationally recognised operatic baritone. In 1992 she was inducted into the Pi Kappa Lambda Society for musical excellence and went to London for further studies with the celebrated accompanist Geoffrey Parsons. After returning to Australia, Phillipa formed an artistic partnership with soprano Louise Page to promote and foster art song. They have produced two CDs, Louise Page sings Richard Strauss and Eternity – The Song Cycles of Erich Korngold. Christina Wilson was awarded the Friends Prize on graduation from the Canberra School of Music. She won the Marianne Mathy Scholarship and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and the National Opera Studio, London. She has appeared as a soloist and recitalist in Australia, the USA, Europe and throughout Britain, at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Wigmore Hall, St John's Smith Square, the Temple Square and the Paris Conservatoire. Reviewed by the Elgar Society as “...a voice to drool over”, her recording of Elgar's The Music Makers was released in 2003. Christina has sung many operatic roles in Australia and Britain, including with the State Opera of South Australia, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Belfast Festival Opera and the Mananan International Festival.